ASA bans Virgin Media “no buffering” claim

Virgin Media has been told to stop claiming its fibre broadband lets users “say bye-bye to buffering”, after a complaint from BT.

BT complained to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) about an ad featuring sprinter Usain Bolt, in which Virgin suggests its service would eliminate buffering.

Virgin said it considered the claim to be puffery and that a character in the commercial was expressing a wish that he would like everyone to be able to say bye-bye to buffering and not claiming that they actually would.

The ASA disagreed, saying the marketing would lead customers to expect buffering would be eliminated. The ad was already no longer airing at the time of the ASA’s ruling, but the watchdog banned Virgin from repeating the claim in future ads.